USB SuperDrive Corrupts files it burns to disk

Most people I encounter who have issues tend to use the cheapest no name DVDs which typically are terrible. However, even a major brand can have manufacturing defects or the DVD can even wear/degrade due to age, plus some may need to be burned at a slower speed even if they are supposed to support faster writes. I rarely burn DVDs, but there are two standards as well "-R" and "+R". Sometimes it can make a difference depending on how the DVD is to be used, but I don't recall the specifics since I rarely burned DVDs even years ago.

It is also possible you have a software issue that causes the system to slow down during the longer DVD writing sessions which could make the session fail.

Run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.

Also run Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. Within Disk Utility click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility to be selected. Even if First Aid reports everything as "Ok" click on "Show Details" to look for any unfixed errors or warnings. If you see any unfixed errors, then you will need to erase the whole physical drive and restore from a backup or clone.

Uninstall CleanMyMac, Trusteer, and Sophos anti-virus apps by following the developer's instructions. Anti-virus software, cleaning apps, and third party security software is not needed on a Mac and they cause more problems than they solve plus they impact system performance. Even if you did need to use an anti-virus app you don't ever want to use more than one of them as they end up stepping on each other causing even more problems than a single anti-virus app.

I did not look at the EtreCheck beyond this point since these apps add way too much noise to parse in the report.

If you continue to have issues, then run EtreCheck again after uninstalling these apps and posting a new report.

It is possible the built-in optical drive is bad so you can try using an external USB DVD burner.

There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community   

That being said you should do what HWTech suggested, definitely.

Also how are you getting the videos from your Photos library to the DVD for burning? Have you exported any of them to the Desktop and tested them to verify that they will play?

Also burn at the slowest speed possible when burning to a disc. That will allow the optical drive to produce the best quality disc it can, i.e. more time over each spot burned.

It may be the DVDs you are using. Try using another brand of DVDs. Also maybe the SuperDrive or DVDs need to be burned at a slower speed. There are also two types of writable DVD. Are you using the correct ones?

donfromduffield wrote:

Second, anti-virus software. Seems like the few times I come to this forum and send an EtreCheck report, that's the first thing people tell me...... But that's definitely not the opinion of numerous experts outside of Apple itself. Just Google the issue and you find many articles in tech magazines recommending lists of anti-virus software, including why Macs need them.

Those people making those recommendations are journalists and they are not supporting Macs every day. Just search these forums and you will find the majority of posts are issues caused by anti-virus software, cleaning apps, and third party security software. Users uninstall these unnecessary apps and their Macs start working properly again. That is why all the regular contributors on these forums tell users to uninstall these apps.

macOS contains enough security to prevent any infections of malware if the user practices some basic safe computing habits by being extremely careful of the software they install (only install from the developer's official sources) and by not clicking on any links in e-mails (even from trusted friends & family) without first verifying the links are genuine & safe, and by carefully choosing the websites you visit and the external links you access on those websites. When macOS prompts you for your admin password take the time to stop & think about what you are doing and be careful on the permissions you give to apps to access your storage drive, camera, etc. If you do this you should never have need of any anti-virus software on a Mac. If you do get infected with adware or malware, then run MalwareBytes to remove the malicious software.

When I returned to a Mac after 15 years dealing with Windows systems, I asked the Apple "genius" selling me the machine what anti-virus software I should use. He recommended Sophos. I did the research and it was highly recommended. That was many years ago and it has found some malware every once in a while. So, I'm not inclined to delete it. Installing Trusteer was a requirement made by my bank before I could use its online banking system. So, I'm not inclined to delete it.

If your bank requires you to have anti-virus software installed and they check to make sure you have an anti-virus solution installed, then you don't have a lot of choices if you want to use that Mac to do your banking. If you need an anti-virus app on a Mac, then use MalwareBytes. MalwareBytes seems to work the best and causes the least amount of problems on a Mac. If your bank actually checks that you have anti-virus software installed, then see if they will allow MalwareBytes (explain the situation that the other solutions cause issues on Macs).

The "genius" is also told to sell stuff whether it is really needed or not. They don't always have your best interests in mind.

Similarly, I am quite happy with Clean My Mac. When I first bought it, I was having speed issues, and Clean My Mac readily fixed them, something the Mac system would not do.

CMM is one of the worst pieces of software for a Mac since probably 75% of the threads on these forums are solved by uninstalling CMM. Yes CMM may "work" for some things, but it has been shown to be absolutely unreliable on these forums and is always implicated in system performance issues. If an app doesn't properly uninstall itself, then you need to check with the developer for manual instructions for removing the remnants of the app or make the developr provide an adequate uninstaller. Another option is to use EtreCheck to show you the remnants of the partially uninstalled app so that you can manually delete the remaining files.

Third, just for clarification, my USB SuperDrive (CD/DVD burner) is not built-in, as Apple gave up putting such drives into Macs a while back. I did replace the drive thinking (hoping) that was the issue, but the new USB SuperDrive would not burn as advertised. ..... The problem is definitely with the system, I'm assuming somewhere between Mojave and Catalina/Big Sur some software got altered and since Apple no longer supports disk use, the issue has not and probably will not be addressed.

I have since moved on to non-Apple solutions.

I haven't burned a CD/DVD on a Mac (or any computer) in many many years so I cannot say if macOS has any issues here. It wouldn't surprise me as the quality and reliability of macOS has really gone down hill in recent years.

I know the Apple SuperDrive is very finicky so using a non-Apple CD/DVD burner is probably better (some SuperDrives won't work on some Macs and they won't work unless connected directly to a Mac).

Even if you purchased "new" DVDs they may still have been sitting on a shelf for a while and may not be that healthy since CD/DVDs do degrade over time, plus I'm sure the manufacturing quality has diminished a bit in recent years.

What software are you using to burn the DVD?

I use Roxio Toast; do not know if they've updated it to be compatible with Big Sur.

As a side note, a much safer place to store photos would be an external drive. You do not need any software for that, you can just drag + drop the photos to the external drive.

I was using the onboard Apple software

Just out of curiosity: what "onboard" Apple software? I don't know of a way that ** or Finder can properly encode a video file and/or burn a disk readable in an external player. It will burn discs you can play in the same computer, but not an external player.

Possible problem #2: I don't know what format your files are in, especially if they are slides. Best check with Roxio to see if they support whatever format it is.

Possible problem #3: I also have not attempted to encode or burn anything - no matter the format - while running Big Sur as that it not my daily OS of choice (I do run it on an MBA, but don't use that for working with images, video, etc). So I cannot say if that may or may not have anything to do with it.

And, if it is just photos (have no experience with slides), why not simply use an external hard drive - a lot easier and, as long as it is formatted for Mac, just drag + drop.

So, exactly what formats are we dealing with? I am not referring to jpg's.

FWIW, I recently bought a refurb 2017 iMac from Apple precisely because it can run older OS versions and, within those, I can run Aperture and Final Cut Express and several other older image/video editing/rendering apps.